The Indian all-rounder Suresh Raina made a comeback into the national T20 side earlier this year during the South Africa tour following his exploits in the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy. The elegant southpaw was missing from the squad despite performing well. Some of the reports of last year also suggested that he failed the Yo-Yo test which has become mandatory to feature in the national squad.

Raina played his last international game before the comeback in January 2016 and was then sidelined due to his fitness and form. But like a champion cricketer that he is, Raina fought hard and his innings of 126 runs against Bengal in Kolkata helped him for the resurgence. At the same time, he cleared the Yo-Yo- fitness test as well which opened the doors of the Indian team ahead of South Africa tour for him, even though just for the T20 format.

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In a recent interview with Times of India, Suresh Raina recalled the tough times when he was away from Team India and how the knock against Bengal helped him for the comeback. He said, “It was an important knock (126* against Bengal). I was representing my state and I hadn’t gotten among the runs. I was getting out on the first or the second ball, so scoring a hundred against Bengal in Kolkata came at the right time and it was very pleasing.”

Though the all-rounder also credited the Sourav Ganguly whose inspiring words after that game helped him do well in South Africa and Sri Lanka. He said, “After the match, I and Harbhajan [Singh] went to Sourav Ganguly’s place for dinner. We had a discussion about how he made a comeback to the Indian team in 2006. I was in the same boat as his back then. That pep talk was extremely helpful and luckily, I was drafted back into the T20 team and did well against South Africa and Sri Lanka.”

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Raina is currently playing for the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the ongoing IPL season and has done well by scoring more than 300 runs at a strike-rate of 135. He has also retained his place in the Indian T20I series against England and Ireland late next month. Raina will now be eager to come back into the ODI squad ahead of the World Cup next year in the same country.